Lecture 10 - Racial Inequality - SOC100 - Prof. McIvor PDF

Racial Inequality SOC100: Intro to Sociology Lecture 10 Dr. Mitch McIvor 1 Where we’re at We’re Here Tutorial #6 runs next week Debate Paper #3 grace period ends Tuesday, December 3rd...

Racial Inequality SOC100: Intro to Sociology Lecture 10 Dr. Mitch McIvor 1 Where we’re at We’re Here Tutorial #6 runs next week Debate Paper #3 grace period ends Tuesday, December 3rd Final Exam is on Friday, Dec. 20th (from 7-10pm 2  House Keeping- General Late paper grades have been released for both paper #1 and #2. For midterm grades, the second make-up and ATS tests are being graded now. We hope to have them out early next week at the latest. Debate Paper #3 is due this Friday, December 22nd by 11:59pm. However, based on our class vote the extension/grace period has been extended and as long as we receive your paper on Quercus by 11:59pm Tuesday, Dec.3rd then you won’t face late penalties. PLEASE NOTE: Since we’ve already given you lots of flexibility, we will hold firm on the grace period deadline. So remember, the late penalty is 3% per day for papers submitted after the 3rd. We also can NOT accept late papers after Sunday, Dec.15th. 3  House Keeping- Debate Papers Remaining debate paper feedback TA online office hours are: Paper Office Hours TA # Hours Zoom Link Meeting ID Passcode Day/Time Selay Nov. 20: 2:30-4:30 pm 2 https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81452286968 814 5228 6968 515476 Kyla Nov. 21: 10-11 am 1 https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/84537561113 845 3756 1113 546837 Coop Nov. 21: 11 am-1 pm 2 https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/83693910377 836 9391 0377 204570 Shabnoor Nov. 21: 2-4 pm 2 https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86147168711 86147168711 856646 No Marie Nov. 22: 9-11 am 1 https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86168295623 86168295623 passcode Maleeha Nov. 22: 10-11 am 1 https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/89064031321 890 6403 1321 653229 No Paul Nov. 22:2-4 pm 2 https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86313028723 863 1302 8723 passcode 4  House Keeping- Course Feedback Townhall Tomorrow (Thursday, Nov.21), one of our course coordinators Cheery is holding an online townhall from 12-1pm on zoom (https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/6642240695. Meeting ID: 664 224 0695, Passcode: MvLR6t) At this virtual town hall, we want to hear your thoughts on what went well and what could be improved for future iterations of SOC100. For students who can't make it to Thursday's virtual townhall, we would still appreciate the opportunity to hear about your experience so far with SOC 100 by filling out this very short form: https://forms.office.com/r/uq7qCFDJ3p. Your responses will be anonymous and kept confidential. Thank you again in advance for your participation. We are always looking to improve and welcome all feedback, big or small. 5  House Keeping- Final Exam The final exam is worth 35% of your final grade. It will be held on Friday, December 20th from 7-10pm. IMPORTANT: Professor McIvor and the Soc100 teaching team have NO control or say in the final exam. The University runs the final exams and only they can grant you an exam deferral. You can read more about their exam deferral policies and apply for a deferral here: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/registrar/deferred- exams#:~:text=A%20deferred%20exam%20is%20a,to%20illness%20or%20 extreme%20emergency. 6  House Keeping- Final Exam The Final Exam is 75 multiple-choice, true-false, and matching questions. It covers all material presented in all lectures and tutorials (assigned material is NOT on the final except where mentioned and discussed in lecture), but it primarily focuses on the material presented after the midterm (33% of questions come from pre-midterm material, 66% come from post-midterm material) The distribution of questions by lecture is as follows: Pre-Midterm Lectures: Post-Midterm Lectures: Lecture 1: 4 questions Lecture 7: 10 questions Lecture 2: 4 questions Lecture 8: 10 questions Lecture 3: 4 questions Lecture 9: 10 questions Lecture 4: 4 questions Lecture 10: 10 questions Lecture 5: 4 questions Lecture 11: 9 questions Lecture 6: 5 questions Tutorial #6: 1 questions 7  House Keeping- Final Exam Everything is generally the same as the midterm. Concepts, theorists/people, trends, and lists are definitely fair game and should be studied. Specific dates and stats are not tested on. The main difference is that the SOC100 team does not run the exam. We will be there to answer any questions, but the university sends presiding officers that are in charge of the test and they are MUCH more strict than we are. Further, what they say goes, not even Prof McIvor can override their decision. For this reason: Ensure you have your student card or other official government ID, Listen to all of their instructions (e.g. if you start the test before they tell you to or do not stop the test at the end when they tell you to, they will rip up your exam. This has happened before. Again, LISTEN to and FOLLOW all of their instructions. Be sure to be on time. Be sure to stay seated at all times unless you are given permission. 8  House Keeping- Final Exam Where you take the test depends on your last name, you can see the room assignments by name here: https://utoronto.sharepoint.com/sites/ArtSci-Undergrad- ExamSchedule/SitePages/Home.aspx?CID=22297f7c-aefb-4fed-877c- df50e1e86824#s For resources, Prof McIvor provides: Midterm Study Guide Practice Midterm and Answer Key The two official midterms used this year (the Weds & Thurs Official Midterm), which you can use as practice tests. A full practice final exam and answer key (new) A final exam (post-midterm lectures) study guide. 9 Racial Inequality 10  Quick Note #1 ❖ Intro to Sociology is a very generalized class with VERY limited time to speak on each issue we take up. For example, I don’t have time today to consider discrimination against every minority racial group despite all minority groups facing discrimination. I’m in no way trying to imply that is not the case. ❖ I chose to focus on Black communities for our case study today because Black communities are a particularly severely discriminated against racial group in North America and because current events like the Anthem Protests and the Black Lives Matter Movements have been focal to current conversations of race and recent academic studies on race and systemic discrimination. ❖ Again, this is not done to minimize in any way the discrimination and racism faced by other minority groups in North America, or to discount other current events that are happening, and which affect many people in this room. 11  Quick Note #1 ❖ Again, significant discrimination on the basis of race is felt by many racial and ethnic minority groups in Canada and I want to recognize that unequivocally. 12  Quick Note #1 ❖ I completely understand the frustration associated with not focussing on specific groups that also face significant discrimination and I’m sorry for that. ❖ If you ever want to learn more about the experience of different racial groups in Canada, the Sociology department offers multiple classes on the subject including SOC210- Sociology of Race & Ethnicity and SOC367 which is an intersectionality focussed course called Race, Class, and Gender. ❖ Both spend 12 weeks on the subject of race versus our course which just has this one lecture, so I encourage you if you are interested to check those courses out. 13  Quick Note #2 ❖ I will use the term “Black” instead of “African American” in this lecture. ❖ For the sake of transparency, this decision was made based on Black being the preferred term of the Association of Black Sociologists (ABS) so I will be doing my best to honor that preference. ❖ I again will have social location bias when it comes to race due to occupying privileged positions as a Canadian born, non-visible minority. If you see any issues with this lecture, please let me know so that I can improve it for next time. 14  Quick Note #3 ❖ These slides are posted to your Quercus site. All test questions based on this lecture are derived from the text in the slides (i.e. no questions from this lecture are on material not included in the lecture text). ❖ We will talk about some important US dates and events to help us understand how historical discrimination still affects discrimination today. These dates and events are NOT on the final exam, they are given for context and to facilitate the discussion, but I do not expect or want you to memorize them. The concepts we discuss during this part of lecture ARE on the test, but the specific events and dates are not. 15 Section 1: Race as a Social vs. Biological Concept 16  INTRO ▪ Before we begin our discussion of current events related to race, we need to first discuss and understand some broad aspects of this conversation. ▪ Specifically: ▪ Race, ▪ Ethnicity, & ▪ Immigration. 17 17  IS RACE REAL? ▪ In society, race is commonly used to refer to: I. A particular nationality (ex: Mexican, Korean, American) II. A particular region (ex: Asian, African, European ) III. A particular religion (ex: Jewish, Muslim, Hindu) IV. A particular skin color (ex: Black, Brown, White) ▪ Often thought of as a BIOLOGICAL trait or something that is clear cut and scientifically defined. In reality, race is a SOCIAL construct and what defines someone’s “race” has differed historically (for example, the concept of race originally in history categorized people by language). 18 18 RACE AS A BIOLOGICAL CONCEPT ▪ Race is not a biological concept. Genetically ANY two humans are 99.9% alike and there is no genetic test that can determine race without using social definitions of race. This is because even though traits are biological, which traits we use to identify race are arbitrary or randomly selected (in North America we often use skin color the most versus say in Asia where other features like body type and nose structure are more commonly used). For obvious reasons (i.e. they are clearly visible) we often use physical appearance, but doing so is much less clear cut than you might think. For example, which physical traits should be used to determine races and why? 19 19 How about nose structure? 20 Maybe hair thickness or shape? 21 How about eye color? 22  OK skin color then! Where do we draw the line though? How many categories should we have? Maybe make-up can help us decide but that’s a lot of shades/ colors! Don’t forget the sunburn/tanning issue as well. 23  OK skin color then! Not to mention regional differences even when people have the same skin color 24  When we use physical features to determine race we often get it wrong. For example, Rachel Dolezal passed as a black woman and even became the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Chapter in Spokane, Washington until her parents revealed that she was white. 25  RACE AS A BIOLOGICAL CONCEPT ▪ “to summarize races are unstable, unreliable, arbitrary, culturally created divisions of humanity. This is why scientists have concluded that race, as a scientifically valid biological division of the human species is fiction not fact” (Mukhopadhyay et al, 2007). ▪ To re-iterate, race has no biological purpose. It’s importance is only social. ▪ In other words, it is only because people think race IS important that it becomes important. ▪ Think about what use biology would have to categorize us? Maybe they would categorize us by something such as blood-type, which has purpose for things like blood and organ donations and is also clear-cut to measure. However, blood-type transcends the physical aspects that we use to categorize race. 26 26  RACE AS A SOCIAL CONCEPT ▪ Because race is a social construct and not a biological one, it’s definition is: RACE: a category of people who are perceived to share distinct physical characteristics that are deemed socially significant. ▪ Perceived because the characteristics people use to categorize race are arbitrary or random (ex: why skin color over hair color?) and because there is greater variation within than between the racial categories people use (ex: skin color varies greatly within the categories “White” or “Black”). ▪ Deemed socially significant refers to how the significance of race has grown out of social practices and institutions. For example, the history of slavery in the US makes Black a significant racial category, the history of colonization and genocide of Indigenous people in Canada makes it a significant category. The difference between White Canadians from different European backgrounds mattered in the past, but now it has little relevance as a significant racial category. 27 27  RACE AS A SOCIAL CONCEPT ▪ The racial classification system that exists in any society is learned (i.e. it is not just a skin color or visible detection issue). ▪ For example, originally in the 1920’s in North America groups like Italians, Greeks, members of the Jewish community, and the Irish were not considered to be white and many did not want to allow them access to Canada. ▪ The Irish, for example, were originally unwanted immigrants. They were poor, spoke funny, and had cultural differences many Canadian despised such as not having “proper” manners and being from another culture (i.e. not following norms). 28 28  RACE AS A SOCIAL CONCEPT ▪ Another example is how in Brazil they use dozens of terms to racially categorize people based on various physical characteristics and lineage. They keep significantly greater track of the different “races” and make distinctions you would never be able to detect because you did not grow up there and, therefore, you did not learn the distinctions. 29 29  RACE AS A SOCIAL CONCEPT ▪ It is important to remember that the physical aspects we use to categorize people into races are completely ascriptive traits—in other words, they are not things people choose or really have control over (I say “really” given that make-up, plastic surgery, hair treatments, skin bleaching, and other measures are options some people choose to take). ▪ The importance of race derives from the social construction of racial differences. Often the political construction of “us” versus “them” as a way to justify differential treatment. 30 30  RACE AS A SOCIAL CONCEPT ▪ To conclude: it is vitally important to understand that race and race relations do not have biological, but only social justifications. ▪ This is true because while the physical differences we use to categorize race have biological origins, what traits are considered important to race and why are socially defined. 31 31 Section 2: Ethnicity 32  ETHNICITY ▪ Ethnicity refers to “a shared cultural heritage or nationality”. It is also socially constructed. ▪ It is typically less associated with physical characteristics compared to race and is more often regarded as an identity. ▪ Ethnicity can be distinguished on the basis of language; forms of family structures and roles of family members; religious beliefs and practices; dietary customs; forms of artistic expression such as music and dance; as well as national origin, origin of one’s parents, or even farther back in lineage such as grandparents (reflecting sexism though, it is traditionally derived from the male lineage). ▪ Ethnicity is thus a cultural trait. 33 33  RACE vs. ETHNICITY ▪ Some differences between race and ethnicity: ▪ Race is more tied to physical characteristics. As such it is… a) Less fluid- more fixed and harder to hide than ethnicity, which can often be hidden more easily (i.e. changing name, hiding one’s accent, etc.) b) Based more on others’ perception than ethnicity, which is based more on what one identifies with. ▪ The key similarity is that both race and ethnicity: (1) are socially defined and constructed; (2) are both derived from history. ▪ For example, race is more often associated with discrimination in places like Canada, but ethnicity is used more greatly as a basis of discrimination in other countries like Bosnia. 34 34 Section 3: Immigration 35 35  Immigration ▪ Immigration refers to the movement of people into a country from another. ▪ It is often the result of push and pull factors. ▪ Push Factors= Aspects of a country that make someone want to leave ▪ Pull Factors= Aspects of another country that make someone want to go live there. For example, bad economic, social, or political conditions in a given country “push” some individuals to leave, whereas favorable economic, social, and political conditions pull individuals to other countries. 36 36  Immigration ▪ Why has immigration become such a big issue in recent politics around the world (for example, the resurgence of anti-immigration in politics)? ▪ INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY: I want each of you to think of and list: 1) How many kids do you want. 2) How many siblings you have. 3) How many siblings your parents have. 4) How many siblings your grand-parents have. ▪ Professor AVERAGE Grand Fathers= 8 & 5 siblings Grand Mothers= 4 & 5 siblings 6.5 kids per family McIvor: Dad= 1 sibling Mom= 4 siblings 3.5 kids per family My family= 2 siblings 3 kids per family My children= 0 children 0 kids per family 37 37  Immigration ▪ Why has it become such a big issue in recent politics around the world? ▪ Increasing immigration is due primarily to immigrants being accepted legally versus being due to increased illegal immigration or other nefarious means. ▪ This increase has been necessary due to birth rates being significantly lower than they used to be historically. ▪ Why do you think birth rates are lower? Higher education (i.e. university) means it takes longer until people have a job/are financially established, dual earner families and cost of raising children increased, women’s rights increases, access to contraceptives, and other important factors. 38 38  Immigration ▪ Why has it become such a big issue in recent politics around the world? ▪ Economically we must retain a workforce and population at least equal to what we have now. ▪ Since people are having fewer kids today, Canada does not actually have enough children being born to replace the population. ▪ For this reason we MUST rely on immigration. There is no scenario where it would be possible to be sustainable as a country without immigration due to the low birth rates in Canada, which is a common feature across the developed world. ▪ This is often left out of the immigration conversation. 39 39  Immigration ▪ Why has it become such a big issue in recent politics around the world? ▪ The average number of births per person assigned female at birth in Canada today is 1.47 vs 3.85 in 1960 (StatsCan, 2022). ▪ The replacement rate (number of kids each person assigned female at birth in a country must have to replace the current population) is 2.1 *Please be advised that Statistics Canada does not track gender identity when recording births. The statistic is calculated using birth record sex designations and number of births per year. However, we must recognize that not everyone that gives birth identifies as female. Source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-630-x/11-630- 40 x2014002-eng.htm 40  Immigration ▪ Why has it become such a big issue in recent politics around the world? ▪ So if we must allow immigration for economic stability, why do people seemingly appear more upset about immigration levels today? ▪ A main reason is racism and where people are immigrating from. In the 1960’s most immigrants were from Europe, but today they are more typically from Asia & the Middle East. 41 41  Immigration ▪ Thus, a lot of the opposition to immigration we see today is based on racism and prejudice. ▪ Racism: “a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Merriam-Webster, 2022) ▪ Prejudice: “favorable or unfavorable preconceived feeling or opinion formed without knowledge, reason, or thought that prevents objective consideration of an idea, individual, group, or thing” (SociologyDictionary, 2022) ▪ These biases combined with Decline bias-“the tendency to compare the past to the present, leading to the decision that things are worse, or becoming worse in comparison to the past, simply because change is occurring”—lead some people to believe that their country is worse off due to immigration. 42 42  Immigration ▪ These sentiments are often based on scapegoating and a preference for assimilation over pluralism. ▪ Scapegoating: “the act of blaming a person or group for something bad that has happened or that someone else has done” (Cambridge, 2022). For example, blaming the rise in inflation or an inability to get a job on immigration. ▪ Assimilation: “the process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society” (Britannica, 2022). This is also often referred to as a Melting Pot. For example, the Canadianizing of new immigrants and their children. ▪ Pluralism: “A mixing of different cultures in which each culture retains its own unique identity” (SociologyDictionary, 2022). This is often referred to as a Cultural Mosaic. 43 43  Immigration ▪ Canadian opinions on immigration remain mixed, but has been shifting slightly towards negative views in recent decades. Source: 2019 Angus Reid Survey Source: 2017 Ipsos Survey 44 44  Immigration ▪ Much of this is based on false perceptions through social media misinformation and echo chambers—“an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced, and alternative ideas are not considered” (Oxford Dictionary, 2022). ▪ For example, many Canadians have a skewed view of current immigration: Source: 2019 Angus Reid Survey 45 45  Does Immigration Hurt Canada? ▪ Now, based on research we know that… Immigrants contribute more in tax revenue than they take in government benefits (Blau & Mackie 2017) Have lower unemployment rates than Canadian born workers (ibid). Are significantly less likely to be arrested or convicted of a crime (StatsCan, 2018). Have better health outcomes and less illness/disability (Health Canada, 2018) Children of immigrants have higher average rates of education than Canadian-born children (Abada et al, 2009). Why do you think this is? 46 46  Does Immigration Hurt Canada? ▪ Wealthy nations with high number of immigration applications only accept the youngest, most educated, wealthiest, and brightest from other countries. ▪ For example, this is the actual points associated with different education levels that is used to determine acceptance into Canada. ▪ They also exclude acceptance of people based on criminal records, old age, health conditions, and other similar traits. 47 47 Brain Drain: Why immigrants do better ▪ Brain Drain is defined as “the emigration of highly trained or intelligent people from a particular country” (Google Dictionary, 2019). Many people falsely believe immigration is a bad trait that hurts a country. The reality is that wealthy nations like Canada, the US, and Europe accept the best, brightest, youngest, and richest people of other nations. The immigration process ensures this as the system is built to value traits like wealth and education. This benefits the host country as they are getting the most economically valuable people from other countries. It severely hurts developing countries, however, as it drains them of their youngest and healthiest citizens with the highest education levels and most wealth. This is a significant and often overlooked benefit of immigration in wealthy nations. It is also a significant factor contributing to why poor countries stay poor. * Please Note: Brain drain refers only to voluntary immigration, those who leave as refuges or due to fears of safety or other concerns (i.e. involuntary movement) are not considered the same. 48  Section 4: Case Study of Racial Discrimination by Police  Current Events ❖ When it comes to current race-related issues that dominate the news, two of the most common and highly inter-connected in recent years are the anthem protests and the Black Lives Matter movement. ❖ On August 26, 2016 to protest racial injustice and police brutality in the United States, Colin Kaepernick (then a quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers) refused to stand during the US national anthem. The first few times he protested he sat, but a U.S Army veteran Nate Boyer convinced him to kneel on subsequent protests- in the context of the military, taking a knee is an action done to show respect to a fallen soldier and people also kneel to pray- as such, Boyer argued that it was a more respectful way to protest. 50  Black Lives Matter ❖ The Black Lives Matter movement (i.e. the movement under the BLM name as the sentiments, protests, and activism did exist prior) was founded in 2013 after George Zimmerman was found not-guilty in the shooting death of 17 year old Treyvon Martin. ❖ Treyvon Martin was walking home from a 7-11 store when stopped by Zimmerman who claimed to be acting as a Neighborhood Watch volunteer. He reported Martin to police as being suspicious before then confronting and ultimately shooting him. Treyvon was walking to his house IN the neighbourhood. ❖ The movement grew as similar incidents continued to occur across the United States and the world in general. ❖ More recently, the deaths of George Flloyd and Breonna Taylor are examples of police brutality that sparked protests. 51  Discrimination ❖ To understand the anthem protests and Black Lives Matter movement, we need to refresh our understanding of discrimination & bias. 1. Overt Discrimination: clear and direct discrimination that is not hidden (in the sense that prejudiced beliefs are clearly the perpetrator’s motivation). 2. Subtle Discrimination: unclear or indirect discrimination that is difficulty to analyze or describe due to the perpetrators motivations being unclear. 3. Systemic Discrimination: “patterns of behaviour, policies or practices that reflect current or former prejudices and that are embedded within the structures of a formal social organization, and which create or perpetuate disadvantage for marginalized persons” (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2022). 52  Discrimination 4. Adaptive Discrimination: “Discrimination that is based on the prejudice of others” (Mooney et al, 2017). This is when someone discriminates against a group of people not because of holding prejudiced beliefs themselves, but because they know other people are prejudiced and fear the consequences from those with prejudice ❖ For example, a landlord not renting to a minority group in a primarily white apartment building due to fear that other tenants might leave, that it will hurt the buildings reputation, etc. ❖ Another example is not hiring someone who is part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to do international business due to it not being accepted in other countries or cultures. Same goes for women or minorities who may also not be received favorably in some countries or areas. 53  Discrimination 5. Cultural Racism: the ways in which the culture of a society perpetuates the subordination of individuals based on their race. 6. Whitewashing: “deliberately attempting to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts” (Oxford, 2022). ❖ For example, the reframing of the American Civil War and the Confederacy by those in the southern US states as NOT being about slavery, but about State’s rights. In other words, the Confederacy was not fighting to maintain slavery, they were fighting because the Northern States were telling them what they could and could not do (i.e. no longer maintain slavery). This re-framing the war as about autonomy allows Southerners to defend the continued use of Confederate symbols. 54  Discrimination 7. Conscious Discrimination: “overt (readily apparent/not secret or hidden) negative behavior that can be expressed through physical and verbal harassment or through more subtle means such as exclusion” (National Center for Cultural Competence, 2022) 8. Unconscious or Implicit Discrimination: “bias that operates outside of the person’s awareness and can be in direct contradiction to a person’s espoused beliefs and values. What is so dangerous about implicit bias is that it automatically seeps into a person’s affect or behavior and is outside of the full awareness of that person” (ibid) 9. Microaggression: “a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority)” (Merriam-Webster, 2022). ❖ For example, asking a person of color where they are really from, using the saying ‘All Lives Matter’, telling someone they are a credit to their race or pretty for someone of their race, and so on. 55  Critical Race Theory The 4 tenets of Critical Race Theory are… 1. Race is a socially constructed and NOT a biologically grounded category. It is used to oppress and exploit people of color. 2. Racism is a normal, persistent, and defining characteristic of social institutions including politics, the legal system, the economy, and all other societal institutions/structures. 3. Progress on racial issues occurs primarily during periods of interest convergence— i.e. when marginalized group interests are taken up by the dominant group only due to it fitting their own interests. 4. Individuals cannot be adequately understood by their membership in separate marginalized communities. In other words, marginalization is intersectional— i.e. membership in multiple marginalized communities compounds or intensifies the negative repercussions an individual faces as a result. 56  Quick Review ❖ We’re now going to analyze current issues (beginning with Police Brutality and #BlackLives Matter, which are the motivation for the anthem protests). ❖ We’re going into this armed (with understandings of: What we mean by Race and Ethnicity, Cultural Racism The 4 tenets of Critical Race Theory, Whitewashing Overt and subtle discrimination Conscious & Unconscious Discrimination Systemic discrimination Microaggressions. ❖ This is our toolbox that helps us Sociologically understand this issue. 57 5 Minute Break! 58  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ To start: Is there a problem with Racial Bias in policing? ❖ When I was teaching in the US, then President Trump in reference to the Black Lives Matter Movement stated that “ More white people than black people are killed by police in the US each year”. ❖ Now this is true, so what is the problem with this statement? ❖ Proportionality— “the fact or quality of being in proper balance or relation as to size or quantity, degree, or severity” (Oxford, 2022). In other words, White Americans make-up 59% of the US population, whereas Black Americans make-up only 13% of the US population. Source: US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2020 59  Anthem Protests & BLM White Americans 1.82 killed per 1 million people Black Americans 5.07 killed per 1 million people ❖ When adjusting for proportionality, Black Americans are 2.8 times more likely to be killed by police than White Americans (5.07 per million compared to 1.82 per million). ❖ Within Canada, we see similar disproportionality in police use of violence. For example, Indigenous Canadians make-up 5% of the Canadian population but comprise 38% of the last 100 police shootings, and Black Canadians make up 3% of the population but comprise 9% of police killings (Flanagan 2020). ❖ Further, a recent report in Toronto found that Black Torontonians comprise 33% of police charges despite making up only 9% of Toronto’s population. 60  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ It is also worth noting that while police shootings happens 67% less in Canada than in the US, we are still second in the world in police shootings among wealthy nations. 61  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ So what explains these disproportionate rates? ❖ Part of this story is, without a doubt, overt discrimination and conscious bias. ❖ There is also the 2006 FBI study that found alarming White Supremacist infiltration of US Law Enforcement. 62  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Overt discrimination is present in Canada as well. ❖ No evidence of overt discrimination may be more horrific than the practice of Starlight Tours used by police in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where police would arrest Indigenous Canadians, drive them to the outskirts of the city, and leave them in sub-zero temperatures to walk back. The first documented case of this practice happened in 1976 and the practice did not gain widespread attention until survivor Darrell Nigh’s report of the practice led to an inquiry into the 1990 hypothermia death of 17 year old Neil Stonechild in 1990 (Macleans, 2016). 63  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ We often like to think that such overt discrimination is a historical artifact, but we must acknowledge that blatant and outright racism is still part of our society. ❖ One reason we may underestimate the level of overt racism in society is due to opinion polls. For example, a September 2021 survey by Ipsos found that 96% of Canadian agree that racism is a terrible thing, with 76% strongly agreeing (IPSOS, 2021) ❖ These numbers are slightly lower in Quebec (67%), which we can understand through French language and culture already being a minority in Canada and how that complicates preferences for assimilation versus pluralism (*this is not a justification for racism or racist views, simply an acknowledgement of unique structural factors at play in Quebec). 64  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ However, such statistics must be looked at with skepticism for two reasons related to study quality: 1) Social Desirability Bias- the tendency for respondents of surveys to underreport socially undesirable attitudes and behaviors and to over report more desirable attributes, and 2) Sampling Bias- a survey not including specific groups of people for intentional or unintentional reasons; for example, lower class, white, men are the least likely to participate in surveys, which means the voices of that demographic are often not included in surveys (this is actually what is blamed for the 2016 US election polls incorrectly predicting that Donald Trump would lose the election—i.e. that poor, young, white men are the least likely to respond to surveys and were the most likely to vote for trump, so by not having this group well represented in the survey the polls underestimated support for Trump). 65  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Another way to measure overt discrimination is through polls asking whether people see racism as a problem in Canada, which makes it less a question of their behavior and more the perception of general societal behavior (thus reducing social desirability bias). ❖ Here we see much higher numbers, with roughly 12% of Canadians believing that racism is a serious problem and another 31% acknowledging that it is at least a fairly serious problem. 66  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ However, even with these polls, we nonetheless must deal with sampling bias as well as social location bias. For example, and as shown below, White Canadians are not surprisingly much more likely to underestimate racism in Canada. Source: Abacus Data, 2021 67  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Therefore, one of the better measures of current levels of overt discrimination are polls asking different populations how much racism or discrimination they face in their daily lives. 68  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Another part of the story behind police discrimination on the basis of race is subtle discrimination. ❖ The nature of subtle discrimination means that it is very difficult if not impossible to prove. Further, it can also be due to Unconscious/Implicit Bias wherein not even the perpetrator believes that their motivations are racist. ❖ There is a great deal of evidence, however, that strongly indicates that many people associate racial minorities with greater levels of threat and/or lawlessness. ❖ For example, in 2018 while living in the US, I informally started noting every time I saw an article in the news of police being called on Black Americans doing mundane activities. This list is not exhaustive, but here is what I noted, police being called on Black Americans for… 69  Police being called for… Selling Water Sitting in Starbucks Sleeping in Yale study halls as a Yale Student 8 years old (June 2018) (April, 2018) (May, 2018) Having a Picnic in the Park Babysitting White children Checking Out of an Airbnb (May, 2018) (October, 2018) (May, 2018) 70  Police being called for… Golfing too Slowly Mowing a Lawn Swimming in a Public Pool (April, 2018) 12 year old (June, 2018) (June, 2018) Swimming at their residence pool Working as a home inspector (July, 2018) (May, 2018) And these are only the examples that (1) made the national news, and (2) that I personally saw. It illustrates, however, the clear heightened sense some people felt to monitor Black Americans in even non-threatening situations. 71  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Where does this perception of criminality for Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities come from? ❖ It is due to historical racism that has been entrenched in the form of systemic racism and cultural racism. ❖ Take the history of Black communities in the United States…. 72  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ In 1862, President Lincoln declares his intention to abolish slavery and seven states immediately secede from the US (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas). US Civil war occurs 1861-1865 over the issue. ❖ In 1865, Lincoln signs 13th amendment and slavery is legally abolished (June 19th is considered the true day of Freedom due to the law not being enforced everywhere until June 19th, 1867). Equal legal protection for Black Americans is also granted under 14th amendment, and the right to vote is granted in the 15th amendment. 73  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ In 1867, Black Americans win elections to Southern State Legislatures and US congress. ❖ However, Southern states as a response immediately pass the “Black codes” ❖ Among the Black codes were restrictions to the right to own property, to conduct business, and to move freely around the US. For example, they contained vagrancy laws where any Black American man without a job was arrested and incarcerated. ❖ The result was plantation or other business owners forcing Black Americans to sign extremely disadvantageous labor contracts, and if they refused then they had no job and became a vagrant. At which point the former employer could have them arrested, incarcerated, and forced to do involuntary servitude once again (which is legal ONLY as a punishment for crime under the 13th amendment). 74  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ This begins the perception of Black Americans, and especially Black men as prone to crime. 75  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ In other words, Southern White Americans used the police and legal system as the means to re-enslave Black Americans (this is the subject of the documentary 13th if you want to learn more). ❖ This begins a long historical process in the US of using police and legal systems to control Black Americans. ❖ For example, the first major prison boom in the US occurs after the Black Codes are passed. 76  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Next the Civil Rights Movement occurs, but the entire time the police, FBI, and US government publicly treats civil rights activists and leaders as criminals. ❖ Civil rights protests were met with intense police brutality (because they were protesting laws). 77  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Remember, civil rights leaders and activist were technically breaking the law by violating segregation laws like Rosa Parks refusing to sit on the back of the bus, the freedom riders that were racially mixed on a bus in states where this was illegal, black activists sitting at White-only lunch counters. All of this is illegal, which means all of this brings activists into conflict with police. 78  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ An often whitewashed part of the civil rights movement is the treatment of civil rights leaders at the time (because again, they were promoting the breaking of laws). ❖ For example, there is significant evidence that the FBI and US law enforcement knew civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were in danger of assassination and took no action to protect them. 79  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Due to the police response to the non-violent civil rights movement, part of the movement began to include language that more directly called out racism. ❖ This gave rise to the Black Panther Party in Oakland in 1966. 80  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ The Black Panther Party started free health clinics, provided free breakfasts to school children, but also promoted the black community to exercise their second amendment rights to be armed and they organize patrol groups to walk black communities and confront police when they engaged in harassment and brutality against black communities. ❖ Police framed these self-defense tactics (which are protected rights) as violence and terrorism. The FBI labelled the Black Panther Party as “Black Identity Extremists” and as “the greatest threat of domestic terrorism” at the time. It’s not a secret or a conspiracy to say the FBI actively sought to disrupt and dismantle the party; this is documented fact. ❖ So throughout the civil rights movement, and immediately after. The movement for Black Rights is consistently labeled criminal in the media and is associated with breaking laws. 81  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ An example of police dismantling of the Black Panther party is Fred Hampton, Hampton was an extremely effective community organizer, including negotiating a non-violence agreement between Chicago gangs of different ethnicities. Bringing them together to fight injustice as a “rainbow coalition” ❖ Hampton was killed in a police raid in 1969 at the age of 21. Police had an informant drug Hampton, give them the layout of his apartment, and then entered the premises. Police claimed a gun fight ensued, but in investigating the case, a Federal Grand Jury found that the Chicago police had shot at least 99 bullets and just 1 had been shot by an occupant of the apartment. 82  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ The Hampton family sued Chicago PD and the case was settled in 1982 for 1.85 million in civil court (6.05 million in todays dollars), which speaks to the guilt of police in having acted outside the confines of the law. ❖ These events are the basis for the recent film “Judas and the Black Messiah”. ❖ They also again framed the civil rights movement as a criminal organization in direct conflict with police for many White Americans. And framed police as an unjust organization that reflects society’s racism to Black Americans. 83  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ If you imagine life as a game of monopoly (one that spans generations due to inheritance), then we must consider the historical discrimination we’ve discussed so far. ❖ The period of slavery in the US goes from 1619-1865. During this time, Black Americans have no power, no ability to accumulate wealth, face extreme racism, experience trauma and mental health degradation, and are banned from education. These are just some of the constraints faced as this time, and we must also acknowledge that Black Americans contributed to the accumulated wealth of many White Americans at the time. ❖ During the period following slavery is the Jim Crow Era (1877-1968) where Black Americans face sharecropping, forced apprenticeship, re-enslavement through incarceration and vagrancy laws, terrorism by the KKK with no police or legal assistance, separate but equal policies leading to worse education, job discrimination, destruction of wealth through riots and KKK terrorism, more trauma and mental health problems, an exclusion from access to loans and property, and more. 84  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ These experiences serve as barriers or anchors to Black communities in the US. It leads to extreme disparity between Black and White Americans in wealth. 85  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ For example, while White Americans are inheriting wealth and property through traditional inheritance, Black Americans inherit intergeneration trauma- trauma that gets passed down from those who directly experience an incident to subsequent generations. 86  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ It is impossible to face the human rights violations, violence, and racism that Black Americans experienced throughout history without mental health repercussions. ❖ Mental health difficulties, especially those tied to trauma, are strongly associated with mental health difficulties and other negative health repercussions in subsequent generations (Braveheart-Jordon & De Bruyn, 1995; Hodgson, 1990; Kirmayer, Brass, & Tait, 2000; Phillips, 1999; Waldram, 1997). ❖ Trauma is passed down through parental behavior, beliefs, habits, practices, and narratives. But it also has a biological links that have been found to pass between generations. 87  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ As a strong case study in the historical barriers to prosperity, consider the life of Malcolm X and his family: Born in 1925 to a preacher and a middle class family. Family harassed by KKK, eventually father killed by KKK for fighting for Black rights. Murder not investigated by police. Mother succumbs to the legacy and experience of trauma and is institutionalized in a mental health facility. Malcolm and his siblings are separated and sent to live in numerous foster homes, he grows up without love and support of a family. He goes to an all white school where he is outright told can’t pursue his academic gifts because he is Black. 88  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ A strong case study in the historical barriers to prosperity, consider the life of Malcolm X and his family: Drops out of school in grade 8, copes with mental health through drugs and goes to jail. Spends 6.5 years in prison and engages with Black Literature and Black rights while incarcerated. Is released, gains fame as an exceptional orator and civil rights leader. Starts his own middle class family. His house set on fire in 1964, harassment due to his activism. Assassinated in February 1965 at age 39. This is an exact repeat of his fathers story. 89  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Through this history lesson, some of the main points of Critical Race Theory become obvious. ❖ Tenet 1:Race is a socially constructed and NOT a biologically grounded category. It is used to oppress and exploit people of color. ❖ Tenet 2: Racism is a normal, persistent, and defining characteristic of social institutions including politics, the legal system, the economy, and all other societal institutions/structures. ❖ We’ve seen historically how society’s institutions like police and the legal system were directed and shaped by racism. And this continued into the modern era. 90  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ For example, Richard Nixon is elected in 1969 by playing on racial fears in America (White Americans being concerned about Black American seeking revenge, perception of Black Americans as more prone to criminality due to historical targeting of Black population by police). ❖ He declares a war on crime which directly targets Black communities and reflects racist sentiments he holds. For example, in some of the recorded tapes recovered as part of the Watergate scandal, Nixon is recorded saying things like “[slur for Black people] want to live like a bunch of dogs on welfare” (Neuman, 2010) 91  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Further examples of Nixon targeting black communities with his war on crime were revealed by a top Nixon Aide, John Elrichman, who in 1994 said the following: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news." "Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did," ❖ These efforts continue the association of Black Americans with crime, and it continues with Reagan's war on Drugs, and Bill Clinton’s expansion of police services. 92  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ So why is there racial bias in policing? ❖ History of police rooted in catching escaped enslaved peoples, enforcing racist laws such as the vagrancy laws to find ways to re-enslave Black Americans, keeping the Black Civil rights movement in check due the movement challenging racist laws like segregation, intentionally over policing Black communities due to perceived criminality into the modern era. ❖ And remember, the perceived criminality in the black community that is used to over-police them, is a social construct created through this history. In other words, Black bodies are perceived as criminal only because police and legal systems have targeted them as criminals. This perception is embedded in society through cultural racism and systemic discrimination and it continues to affect the perception of the Black community today. 93  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ As an example of how history becomes rooted in cultural racism and structural discrimination, consider the concept we just learned: Statistical Discrimination. ❖ Many people argue that police use violence against Black men and come into contact with Black men more simply because they commit more crimes. Some statistics even show that Black men do commit more crimes, but much of this is due to statistical discrimination. ❖ Let’s consider what this looks like. 94  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Due to historical discrimination against Black communities by police, Black communities are considered more prone to criminality. This leads to policing them more, which means they are found to commit crime more. ❖ For example if 4/10 Black people are carrying marijuana and you stop them 4/10 times to search them you will catch 16% of the people carrying marijuana. ❖ If the same rate of 4/10 white people are carrying marijuana and you stop them only 1/10 times to search them, then you will catch only 4% of the people carrying drugs. ❖ If you are the police you can use then use these statistics to justify over-policing black communities by saying that “we police them more because clearly they commit crime more”. When in reality the rates of use, i.e. the rates of crime, are the same. 95  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ An equivalent example would be if I watched a minority group more in my classes for cheating and never white students because I think white students are too proper to cheat. ❖ As a result of this disproportionate focus, I will eventually catch more students from minority groups cheating and will catch much fewer, if any, white students. This will occur even if students from minority communities and white students cheat at the same rate. ❖ The problem is that this disproportionate focus will give me statistics and reason to justify watching minority students more in the future for after all “I catch way more minority students than white students cheating!” 96  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ As evidence of Statistical discrimination, consider this: ❖ White Americans are more likely to have used almost every single drug at higher rates than Black Americans in the US but are caught and jailed significantly less for drug offenses. This is the result of differences in policing. ❖ Therefore, police discrimination based on a ‘rational/logical’ argument rooted in statistics is a big part of why we see higher crime rates in marginalized communities like Black communities in the US. 97  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ What other reasons are there for racial bias against Black Americans in policing? ❖ Another concept that helps us understand this issues is contact hypothesis: that contact between groups can shape the prejudices and opinions of those involved. ❖ Typically, this hypothesis is associated with positive change in opinions, with the idea being that by someone getting to know someone from a different group helps rid themselves of negative stereotypes about the group. For example, studies find that the more racially diverse a school is, the less racial bias children have. ❖ However, the conditions of the interactions are important to how opinions change. And the conditions of interactions between police and the Black community are often tied to negative experiences, which affect the opinions of both police and the Black community. 98  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ For example, consider the feedback loop of police interactions historically and continuing today. Feedback Loop: “when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to feed back into itself” (Oxford, 2022). ❖ There is distrust between the Black community and police that is reinforced Distrust and dislike of through continual negative Negative interactions with Black police within Black interactions. Even consider Community for police as part of community as part of the BLM movement’s history and over-policing. history and over-policing. proposed action of defunding the police, something police are firmly against. 99  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Further, the wealth gap between Black and White Americans has actually grown since the 1960’s (which is tied to the Matthew Effect: upward and downward forces that enable the wealthy to stay rich and limits the poor from gaining ground). 100  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Similarly, the income gap between Black & White Americans has also been growing in recent decades. ❖ The same is true in Canada where there is also a growing gap in recent decades between White and Black Canadians. ❖ In 2019, Black men in Canada earned $41,000 a year which compares to $56,000 for other Canadian men. That’s a $15,000 per year difference. Black women earn roughly $7,000 less than other Canadian women. 101  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ Thus, Black Americans face greater strain due to systemic and cultural barriers to success, intergenerational trauma, greater odds of socio-economic disadvantage, as well as… ❖ A lower sense of Mastery stemming from the above. Mastery: feeling that one has personal control over one’s life, such as the ability to meet one’s goals through their individual effort and talents. Mastery decreases the more one feels that external factors limit their sense of control over their lives (such as facing racism). ❖ Lower levels of trust in society stemming from government involvement in historical and present-day discrimination. ❖ And Relative Deprivation: anger and resentment stemming from the perception of having less economic, political, and social resources and rights than other groups. 102  Anthem Protests & BLM ❖ To summarize, the reasons we see for disproportionate police contact and brutality against the Black community include: Overt and conscious discrimination by police; Subtle and systemic discrimination by police, such as through statistical discrimination; Negative contact between police and Black communities resulting in feedback loop of mutual distrust. Socio-economic disadvantage, intergenerational trauma, relative deprivation, and lower sense of mastery leading to lower socio-economic statuses. ❖ And remember all of this is rooted in the overt and conscious racism that defines the history of the United States (as well as places like Canada). 103  What can be done? ❖ A major issue today is that through the whitewashing of history, many don’t consider how historical racism continues to affect today. [% that agree] US Democrats Republicans (2017) (2017) (2017) The US needs to continue making changes to 61% 81% 36% give Black Americans equal rights. The US had made the changes needed to give 35% 15% 60% Black Americans equal rights with whites. ❖ For example, over a third of Americans believe that racism against Black Americans has been solved in the US. ❖ This is often rooted in the idea that overt racism is the only form that matters, which neglects Cultural Racism, Structural Discrimination, and Subtle Discrimination. 104  What can be done? ❖ We, of course, have already discussed how we see this in Canada as well. ❖ One of the biggest issue we see with marginalized groups when it comes to solving this problem is proportionality and the nature of democracy. ❖ This relates to the third tenet of Critical race theory: 3. Progress on racial issues occurs primarily during periods of interest convergence—i.e. when marginalized group interests are taken up by the dominant group only due to it fitting their own interests. 105  What can be done? ❖ Democracy does not serve minority groups well as it is literally tied to the will of the majority. This is referred to as Tyranny of the Majority- i.e. A fear expressed variously by Plato, Aristotle, Madison, Tocqueville, and J. S. Mill. If the majority rules, what is to stop it from expropriating the minority, or from tyrannizing it in other ways by enforcing the majority's religion, language, or culture on the minority. At best it is the majorities interest taking priority over any minority interest. ❖ To illustrate this, democracy fits two wolves voting to eat a sheep. Eat the Eat the Don’t Eat Sheep Sheep the Sheep 106  What can be done? ❖ Indigenous peoples make up only 5% of the Canadian population, which means indigenous communities have little political power. ❖ Further, we have not seen interest convergence occur in Canada regarding Indigenous peoples despite even international shame being attributed to Canada on the grounds of indigenous inequality. ❖ For example, the UN has declared Canada to be failing Indigenous Peoples throughout recent history. Including declaring the high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada a direct human rights violation. 107  What can be done? ❖ Critical Race Theory’s fourth tenet also shows the similarity between the experience of Black communities in the US to Indigenous communities in Canada. 4. Individuals cannot be adequately understood by their membership in separate marginalized communities. In other words, marginalization is intersectional—i.e. membership in multiple marginalized communities compounds or intensifies the negative repercussions an individual faces as a result. ❖ For example, consider 2020 homicide rates by different ascribed statuses according to Statistics Canada (2022): Homicide rate for Canadian Women: 1.0 homicides per 100,000 people (for men it is 3.08). Homicide rate for Indigenous Canadians: 8.64 per 100,000 people (for other Canadians it is 1.39) Homicide rate for Indigenous women in Canada: 5.07 per 100,000 people (for Indigenous Men it is 13.16) 108  What can be done? ❖ Because of proportionality, the only way that minority issues will be addressed in Canada is when those not in the minority comprehend the barriers to equality caused by historic discrimination that is embedded in Cultural Racism and Systemic Discrimination. ❖ That is why we’ve spent so much time on this topic, and why it is vital to understand. ❖ As a final consideration, in order to better practice verstehen- an empathetic understanding of another’s experiences, I provide on the next slide a video of Black parents talking to their children about racial bias in policing. Please be advised, this video is heartbreaking and hard to watch. As such, the video will NOT be on any test so if you are not in a place to watch it, that’s OK. Please do what’s best for you and your mental health, it really is heartbreaking. ❖ But if you do watch it, I want you to try and empathize and imagine what this conversation would feel like. 109  What can be done? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coryt8IZ-DE 110 111